Teaching Dossier Template - Dalhousie University

[Pages:7]Teaching Dossier Template A teaching dossier (or teaching portfolio) presents an overview or summary of your teaching philosophy, experience and accomplishments (Kenny, Berenson, Jeffs, Nowell & Grant, 2018). A dossier should highlight the teaching practices you implement that align with the components of your teaching philosophy and should provide strong evidence of your strategies and approaches to student learning. Beyond simply listing your past successes, a teaching dossier should also include reflection on what you have done and learned as well as possibly including what you hope to do in the future. Teaching dossiers are often used in tenure and promotion processes and usually required for academic hiring processes. They may also be used for teaching award programs at the institutional and nation level. This template is designed to provide a sample structure and outline of a teaching dossier. Not all sections will be applicable to all teachers and some teachers will need to create sections of their own beyond the ones listed here. Text in grey indicates information that you can fill in. A Table of Contents, specifically one that is clickable, is very useful for readers to navigate your teaching dossier. Below is a sample clickable Table of Contents that you may wish to use in your own teaching dossier.

Kenny, N., Berenson, C., Jeffs, C., Nowell, L., &Grant, K. (2018) Teaching Philosophies and Teaching Dossiers Guide. Calgary, AB: Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from:

Teaching Dossier

Name, (Optional: position/title) Department, Faculty Dalhousie University

Table of Contents

Teaching Philosophy....................................................................................................................... 3 Summary of Teaching Responsibilities .......................................................................................... 3 Development of Teaching Materials............................................................................................... 4 Efforts to Improve Teaching ........................................................................................................... 4 Information from Students .............................................................................................................. 4 Future Teaching Goals .................................................................................................................... 6

Teaching Dossier

Name, (Optional: position/title) Department, Faculty Dalhousie University

Teaching Philosophy

A teaching philosophy is a statement of your value, goals, and beliefs with regards to teaching and learning. A teaching philosophy is usually 1-2 pages in length, and it is designed to give an overview of your teaching beliefs and who you are as a teacher. It is best to use a narrative, firstperson approach to provide the reader with a clear picture of who you are in the classroom. Be sure to ground your values and ideas with specific examples. The teaching dossier should be frequently revised and up-dated as teaching is an evolving and reflective process. If you wish to include quotes, either from literature or from students, you are welcome to do so as long as they are referenced.

For more information on writing teaching philosophy statements:

Summary of Teaching Responsibilities

Historical Perspective and Current Context

A historical perspective is helpful for explaining the circumstances of your teaching load. How did you come to teach these courses? Is the course content in your special area or outside of it? Was this course your own design, or someone else's? Are you just filling in temporarily, or is this a permanent situation? What role does this course play in the department's teaching mission?

Courses Taught

COURSE TITLE #1 (xxx 0000) Course description and summary of your work, with reference to supporting documents included in the Appendix.

COURSE TITLE #1 (xxx 0000) Course description and summary of your work.

COURSE TITLE #1 (xxx 0000) Course description and summary of your work.

May include other teaching responsibilities such as Teaching Assistant or Lab Instructor if teaching experience is limited.

Development of Teaching Materials

This category provides an opportunity for you to display the often "invisible" work that you do in researching and preparing materials to be presented in class, devising meaningful and appropriate assignments, and evaluating students' progress. This section should provide a general overview as well as a few specific highlights. You should include materials that are unique or things that you think make you stand out.

Courses

Efforts to Improve Teaching

List any formal courses in teaching that you have taken.

Workshops

This section should include any teaching-related workshops you have attended. If you have attended a large number of workshops, include a selection of workshops that highlight your experiences and relate to your teaching philosophy. You should also include a brief description of the workshop and what you learned from it.

Dalhousie's Centre for Learning and Teaching offers a variety of teaching and learning focused workshops. For the current workshop offerings, please visit:

Conferences

List teaching conference you have attended.

Formal Feedback

Information from Students

At Dalhousie University, the Student Rating of Instructions, or the SRI, is the online end-ofcourse evaluation system. You should include quantitative results from your SRIs as well as select qualitative comments that are related to your teaching philosophy. It is recommended to display your quantitative results visually in a table, a figure, or graph. If you have several years of SRIs, you should include a larger selection in the appendix. For tenure and promotion, the previous 5 years is a common recommendation, but this may vary so you should confirm with your department. For graduate students, summarize your quantitative results in chart form and include some selected quotes from the qualitative results. You do not need to include full SRI

details but offer to make full results available should the reader wish to request them. Include an introductory narrative to this material highlighting your strengths and providing succinct explanations for any anomalies.

For more information on Dalhousie's SRI system, please see: dal.ca/sri

Informal Feedback

This section includes emails or notes from students. This material may be solicited (requested) or not solicited. For unsolicited feedback, such as a spontaneous email, it is best to ask the student if they are comfortable with you including the feedback in your teaching dossier.

Future Teaching Goals

This section allows you to discuss what teaching goals you have for yourself. This may include development you want to pursue, or specific courses you want to teach or design.

Other things to include

As you gain more experience and progress in your career, there are additional section you may wish to add to your dossier. The following are sample sections that may be relevant.

Synopsis

This is helpful if you have a long dossier. The synopsis will provide the reader with an overview of what is included in the dossier in case they do not take the time to read the entire document.

Diversity Statement

A diversity statement if often requested in job applications now. This statement should include your experiences and commitments to diversity. Things to consider when writing your diversity statement could include your values, your experiences working with diverse groups, and your future plans to related to diversity and inclusion.

For more information on diversity statements:

Student Advising or Mentorship

If you were the supervisor of a student or mentored them in another way, explain what your role was and how it contributed to your teaching development.

Teaching Philosophy for Graduate Supervision

If you have supervised students previously, you may have a specific philosophy related to your supervising role. You may wish to include a brief philosophy statement for supervision.

Courses Developed or Modified

In this section, you can explain how you modified an existing course to improve it. If you developed a course, provide an overview of that process and what you learned from it.

Information from Colleagues

This section relates to any feedback from colleagues including peer review of your teaching.

Service to Teaching

This section includes any committees or boards you sat on related to teaching and learning and note your role and/or contribution. Other examples of service to teaching may include being a reviewer on a teaching and learning journal.

Appendices

Provide evidence of examples you discussed in your dossier. You may wish to include the syllabus of a course you created, any materials you developed, longer pieces of information from students and colleagues.

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